lavar

Forms

lavar (first-person singular present lavo, first-person singular preterite lavei, past participle lavado)^[1] Fourteenth-century texts write lauou, lavey, lavaron and lauã.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lavō (“to wash, bathe”), written Old Galician-Portuguese lavar in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][4]

The same Latin verb is Galician lavar, Spanish lavar, Catalan llavar, French laver, Italian lavare and Romanian la.^[5][1][6]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Italic *lowō, from Proto-Indo-European *lewh₃- (“to wash”), and is related to Ancient Greek λούω (loúō, “I wash”).^[1][7] In Old Latin it also had third-conjugation forms, used for washing something, beside the first-conjugation forms meaning “to wash oneself”.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 13th century.^[2][3] In the Cantigas de Santa Maria it is used both literally, lavou-a con agua “washed her with water”, and of sins: pod'os pecados das almas lavar “can wash away the sins of souls”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1789) gives the literal sense, the sea or a river “washing” the shore, the figurative “to purify”, and lavar as mãos de algum negócio “to wash one's hands of a matter”.^[10] Vieira (1871) adds the technical uses of chemistry and of washing a book or a print.^[11] Today it also means to do washing as a trade, to wash ore, and to clear one's name: lavar a honra is to avenge an insult.^[2][12]

In Rio Grande do Sul it is said of the mate when water is poured on it without fresh herb.^[13]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][3][9]
• 14th century – lavatório.^[3]
• 1500 – lavagem.^[3]
• 1571 – first in the private letters of Post Scriptum.^[14]
• 1611 – Barbosa glosses it with Latin lavo and abluo.^[15]
• 1789 – Morais records lavar as mãos de algum negócio.^[10]
• 1871 – Vieira adds the technical senses.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To wash, clean with water or another liquid: lavar a louça.^[2][16][1]
2. To clean (a wound) with an antiseptic; to wash out (an organ).^[2]
3. To remove (a stain or trace) by washing.^[2]
4. (reflexive) To wash oneself, to bathe.^[2][17]
5. To wash clothes for a living.^[2]
6. To wash (ore or another material) free of impurities.^[2]
7. Of water, to bathe, flow along: o rio lava a planície.^[16][12]
8. (figurative) To purify, clear of guilt or of a stain on one's honour.^[2][16][12]
9. (painting) To dissolve (colours) in water.^[18]

Word family

• lavadeira
• lavadouro
• lavadura
• lavagem
• lavanderia
• lavatório
• deslavado
• lavação

Related words

• lavabo
• lavanda
• Galician lavar

Usage notes

Lavar as mãos “to wash one's hands” is to disclaim all responsibility.^[17][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. lavar
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. lavar
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. lavar
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4951
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. lavare
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. laver
9. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. lavar
10. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 10
11. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 1272
12. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5609
13. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. lavar
14. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. lavar
15. ^ Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. lavar
16. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. lavar
17. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. lavar
18. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. lavar